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Python

Posted by Sreeram Hareesh
Sreeram Hareesh
2,014 Points

Use of "is" in python

Here is the code-

a="Done"
b="Done"
c=input("Enter Done :")      #c takes the value "Done"
print(a is b)
print(a is c)

The first print statement prints True, whereas the second one prints False. Why is that happening?

1 Answer

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
216,136 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
216,136 Points

The is operator is an identity test, unlike == which is an equality test. Your string literal referenced by both variables a and b (because Python optimized them to one object) is stored separately from the input string referenced by c. That's why "a is b" but not "a is c".

However, if you tried "a == c" you would find that to be True.

Sreeram Hareesh
Sreeram Hareesh
2,014 Points

Are there any particular names for the places where literals and the input strings are stored?

Chris Freeman
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 67,989 Points
Chris Freeman
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 67,989 Points

The area where all objects are stored is call the "heap" (see docs). Variables names are stored in a namespace.

The namespace dictionary holds the name of the variable as the "keys" and the address of the object's location in the heap as the "value".

When an object is created (the right-side of the equals sign) if it is an immutable (unchangable) object then the heap of objects is checked to see if it is already present. This happens for strings and small numbers. If present, the variable name is pointed to the preexisting object.

The id() of an object is it's address in memory or "value" in the namespace dict. So if the id of two variables match, the object they reference is the same object in the heap.

Python 3.3.0 (default, Nov 26 2015, 16:04:52) 
[GCC 4.2.1 Compatible Apple LLVM 6.1.0 (clang-602.0.53)] on unknown
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> a = 'DONE'
>>> b = 'DONE'
# checking the id of the literal
>>> id('DONE')
110178112
# matches variables pointing at the same literal
>>> id(a)
110178112
>>> id(b)
110178112
# input() creates a new object 
>>> c = input("> ")
> DONE
>>> c
'DONE'
>>> id(c)
110177920

>>> a == c
True
>>> a is c
False
Sreeram Hareesh
Sreeram Hareesh
2,014 Points

Thanks!